Book Summary – The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of An Ending

by

Julian Barnes

Winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2011. 

Vintage 2012, Paperback, 150 pp, Rs. 299/-

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            The book narrates the revisit of the past in an old person’s life, which throws up a few surprises.

          Four school-mates, Tony Webster, Colin Simpson, Alex and Adrian Finn are great friends who wear the face of their watches in the inside of their wrists, if only to show solidarity.  While the first three are essentially easy-going, their latest addition is essentially serious.  The reader gets to know of the differences between the three original friends and their latest addition, like Adrian seriously did the prayers while the others either mimed or overdid them; he actively took part in sports, while they didn’t; he carried his clarinet to school, while the other three were tone-deaf; Adrian was from a ‘broken home’ (as per the lingo of that time, since the phrase ‘single parent family’ was not yet in circulation), while the other three foul- mouthed their parents.  Yet, Alex and Adrian were of philosophical mould, while the other two weren’t.

          The beauty of the novel is in the detail, like the discussion on Henry VIII’s reign in class (the description is limited to ‘unrest’, ‘great unrest’, & ‘something happened’) or on the First World War (‘caused by ‘a chance’; and attributed a meaning retrospectively by ‘primitive’ story telling instinct’; one needs to know ‘the history of the historian’ to understand his version), or on the philosophical question on the content of history (‘lies of victors’, ‘raw onion sandwich’, ‘self delusion of the defeated’, ‘certainty produced at the point where the imperfection of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation’ (from a Frenchman, Patrick Lagrange)) are a treat to the eyes and an stimulus to the brain. Of course, there are absolutist notions of 'Praise' vs 'Blame', 'Guilt' vs 'Blame' and 'Unrest' vs 'Great Unrest' as well.  Death caused by love complications is referred to as the victory of Thanatos ( the Greek God of Death) over Eros ( the Greek God of Love).  There is a lot of loose talk about the anonymous girlfriend of the dead classmate, though.

          Time and again, Tony reminds the reader that this is his best recollection of events and individuals, long past.

          Tony falls in love with a girl, Veronica but it is not meant to be.  Even his stay at her home is not comfortable but nervous.  Everyone seems to behave oddly at their home including her mother.  They are elitist whereas he’s a middle class fellow.  The inevitable break-up happens; after some more time, Adrian writes to Tony about his interest in Veronica, and the latter reacts jealously (because he thinks Adrian may have been chosen for his Cambridge connection (Veronica’s brother also studies there)). There are details about going beyond pure and simple love, which, I originally thought, were not relevant. I was wrong, but the hint is enough for the summary.

          Tony concludes that in private lives, people infer past actions from current mental states, whereas in history, mental states whereas in history, mental states can be inferred from actions (what a contradiction!).  He recollects his past and reviews the present.  It reminded me of E.H. Carr’s immortal statement that History is the unending dialogue between the past and present.  Tony considers himself a rebel during school days and youth, but by the standards of the society of his old age, he’s almost a prude! This is ironical, and the reader knows of it only in the last page!

          Tony now recollects how he had learnt of Adrian’s death by suicide, done in a clinically Roman style of cutting open his wrists diagonally;  Tony’s mother opines, at that time,  that when one is too clever, one tends to leave commonsense behind, and that may cause the brain to unhinge the individual.

          The reader is told that most people don’t act on the conclusion of logical thought, but rather act instinctively and then build reasons of justification around it.

          Tony gets married, and has a break-up as well.  He has an ‘instinct for survival’, which he calls as ‘being peaceable’.  He has a friendship with his ex-wife and gets on well with his daughter.  He believes that history actually is the memory of the survivors, who are neither victorious nor defeated.

          The reader gets to know a lot about the friendliness between the divorcees.

          All the talk about History is not a part of school antics.  It is connected to the retired life of Tony.

          One day, Tony learns that he has a legacy of £500 (‘bigger than nothing, not big as something’) from Veronica’s mother.  He tries to recollect any great act of his which may have made him earn this legacy, but in vain.  Along with the legacy, she wants Tony to keep Adrian’s diary, but it is withheld by Veronica subsequently.

          The reader also gets a good taste of legal humour when Tony tries to ensure the diary reaches him faster (‘the less time there remains in your life, the less you want to waste it’).  Tony writes to her brother who opines his intervention may be counterproductive. 

          Meanwhile, Tony tries to understand (make sense of) why Adrian’s diary was left to Veronica’s mother and not to her.  However, before any action takes place of Tony’s part (though a lot of thought has happened),  Veronica’s brother passes her email id on to Tony.  This surprises him because he found Brother Jack odd during their only meeting.  The reader gets to know only later that Tony may have repaid the contempt that Jack showed four decades ago by betraying him.

          Tony tries to get the diary from Veronica by being ‘polite, unoffendable, persistent, boring, friendly’, in other words, by lying.  By his protracted correspondence, he manages to get an extract from the diary in which Adrian discusses the mathematical representation of relationships and rhetorically states that most relationships require to be expressed in notations, logically improbable and mathematically insoluble.  He also talks about breaking of links, and the responsibility thereof, and the photo copy of the extract ends with Tony’s name.

Tony now broods over Adrian, the way he used his brain as naturally as an athlete used his muscles, the way he made others feel like ‘co-thinkers' even if they said nothing, the way he could see and examine himself and take moral decisions i.e., the way 'he took charge of his own life, he took command of it, he took it in his hands and then out of them'.  Tony recollects the difference between increase and addition, and doubts if he has only added years to life. 

Veronica finally wants to meet him in the middle of the Wobbly Bridge, the new foot bridge across the Thames, where, after some irrelevant conversation, she tells him he has burnt the diary of Adrian, because, ‘People shouldn’t read other people’s diaries’.  She then hands over an envelope, which makes Tony wonder why she had actually suggested the meeting and comes up with a theory – that she wanted to convey the news of the burning of the diary, and not do it in writing.

When he finally opens the envelope, he finds his letter written in response to Adrian’s letter that he and Veronica were seeing each other.  He literally curses her, hoping that in six months to one year, she may be left with ‘a lifetime of bitterness’ that will ‘poison’ her ‘subsequent relationships’, that she may have a child so that the revenge passes on; he also advises Adrian to keep off her, since she was ‘somehow who will manipulate your inner self while holding hers back from you’, and since she was a ‘control freak’.  He ends the letter wishing the ‘acid rain’ to fall on their ‘joint and anointed heads’.

Now, Tony regrets this letter.  His concept of direct proportional relationship between witnesses to our lives and essential corroboration, takes a thorough beating; he wishes Veronica had burnt this one.  The one who thought he had the last laugh, realizes that time was telling against him, not them.  The person who succeeds in not letting life trouble him, realized what he lost, and is stricken by self-pity.

Tony wonders if he will have been allowed to be a more doting grandfather if he were not divorced and the painful answer is ‘yes’.  But again, this is a construct of his own mind, not an affirmative answer received from his daughter.  He realizes he is average in everything, including in moral values.  He also realizes how people operate in assumptions.  He also understands that unlike in novels, characters in real life are on their own after the age of say, thirty or so, which should explain a lot of people’s lives and their tragedies.

Tony also replays Adrian’s take on relationships, and on responsibility.  Their thought processes are different but the conclusion is similar – that all is one’s responsibility till there is strong evidence to the contrary.  Tony feels that Adrian had much better clarity in life, but attributes his lack of clarity to his ageing – that as one ages, one gets false memories, as the real ones are erased like what happens in the black box of an aeroplane.  He also tries to apply some philosophy of History to individual lives, including his own: that the most favourite times of history were when things were collapsing, because something new was being born.  But Tony’s conclusion is that since all changes disappoint, adulthood disappoints as well and that the purpose of life is to make one reconcile to its loss by proving that life isn’t all ‘it’s cracked up to be'.

Tony continues to be in touch with Veronica, and after each email, he reviews the past and present and, more often than not, finds it in ‘new light’.  His thoughts are not in the manner of a soliloque, but of a conversation.  He realizes that the end of a person’s life is more complicated than a ‘gradual decline’ and that the brain throws up tidbits which can even disengage one from familiar memory-loops.  He requests her for a meeting – this time she spends an hour listening to his progress over the last forty years or so, but doesn’t talk about herself at all.

The reader is told that there is something called ‘subjective time’, which is also personal time and true time, measured in one’s ‘relationship to memory’.

Veronica calls him for another meeting, and takes him to a busy place where he’s made to observe some mentally challenged individuals, and their minder who tells them that Friday is pub day, and wishes Veronica bye in the name of Mary.  Tony (and the reader) remembers that Mary is also her name (Veronica Mary Elizabeth Ford).

Tony goes to the pub every Friday to try and find the challenged people out there.  Luck smiles on him the third time, not in the pub, but in the nearby shop.  He notices that one of them, about forty, had strikingly familiar features.  He’s now sure that this must be the son of Adrian and Veronica, challenged probably because of the trauma Veronica would have gone through on account of Adrian’s death.  He remembers his curse on them and feels remorseful (he claims he never believed in them, though) and feels that if life rewards merit, he deserves a shunning (his efforts to get some information about the boy fail, expectedly).

All his fantasies of reviving the relationship with Veronica come to naught. These are not unconnected with the future, though some additional recollections of the past also take place.

The loose talk about dead Robson’s girlfriend pricks Tony further.  He wonders, what would have happened if indeed she were bearing Robson’s child at the time.  He feels like apologizing to her, though she didn’t know them in first place.  He thinks he endured a special kind of remorse as he always looked at himself as a person who knew how to avoid being hurt. 

A remorseful Tony sends an apologetic email stating that his wile words ‘were the expression of a moment’, and that he will not press for Adrian’s diary (even if it’s not burnt), as it is of the father of her son, signing off with an offer of assistance at any time wishing them a peaceful life.  Veronica answers it by stating that he should stop trying to get it, as he never did and he never will.

On another visit to the bar, he finds the challenged people accompanied by the minder.  This time the minder tells him that his presence upsets the boy, Adrian.  After sometime, Tony (and the reader) gets to know that the boy isn’t Veronica’s son, but her brother.  Tony promises never to disturb him again and leaves.

He tries to make ‘sense’ of it.  It appears now that the single page of Adrian’s diary falls into place.  Veronica’s mother bore the child who suffered on account of late conception.

The novel ends with Tony experiencing great unrest.  (I couldn’t figure out who was the father, though.  I googled and found two different schools of thought.  Since the author does not expressly state it, I do not wish to comment on it- whoever it was, it was a cougar relationship). As I mentioned earlier, it is for the interesting concepts that I loved this book.

The gripping narrative and interesting phrases and concepts make it  worthy of chewing and digesting.  A dull student is referred to as a ‘cautious know-nothing’.  ‘Perceived nature of reality’ and its ‘philosophical objections’ thereto are other phrases one remembers.  The reader is also enlightened on the fact that people invent different futures for themselves when young and different pasts for others when old.  Nostalgia is defined as powerful recollection of strong emotions and a regret that such feelings are no longer present in our lives.  Another axiom is the more one learns(i.e. understands life practically), the less one fears.

Then, there are expressions like ‘deep expressions of regret and much inner exhilaration’ to describe Tony’s prolonged battle with the local Government on protecting his lemon tree from the axe.

A piece of wisdom is passed on to the reader is that if one’s a heavy drinker, one doesn’t go bald (but I heard of some people to the contrary).  Yet another says, ‘……… time first grounds us and then confounds us …..’ 'give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical'!  The reader makes some sense of an ending but may not have anticipated the actual end.  Another pearl of wisdom already mentioned says that if the witnesses to one’s life decrease, the essential corroboration decreases as well.  But this one is proved to be false in the novel.

About remorse, the reader is told it is a feeling more complicated, curdled and primeval than guilt, and characterized by no chance to make amends, somewhere between self-pity and self-hatred.  The author indicates what it is for remorse to flow backwards, - it will first transmute to simple guilt, then apologized for and forgiven.

About youth, the reader learns that this is the time when one is most hurtful because with age, one feels less sharply and learns how to bear hurt (and therefore doesn’t hurt).

About dealing with memory (or its lapses), the reader learns that one can either force memory into submission, or admit failure and try to retrieve it through reference books or the internet or to let go (i.e., ‘forget about remembering’), until some mislaid fact surfaces a little later!  And of course, the concept of subjective time has already been discussed!  Memory is summoned to seek corroboration even if it turns out be a contradiction.  Tony’s remorse over his letter and sorrow on the death of Veronica’s parents are attributed to the effort at corroboration.

The reader gets to go through concepts like ‘the attraction of overcoming someone’s contempt’, and ‘the eternal hopefulness of the human heart’, because of which Tony thinks he can set the clock back, in vain (this is much more than what he originally thought of which was to get his legacy Adrian’s diary).  For this, he considers himself an old fool, a term used by his mother.  That longevity leads to better understanding is also one of the lessons learnt.

The behaviour of school children in the sixties and at present is contrasted – the striking one is that the pupils of the 1960s behaved in a way that reflected well on their institution, when they were in uniform.  Contextually, these differences are brought out only to highlight Tony’s indifference and his suspension of his own right to thoughts and judgements, as he concentrates on Veronica. Only at the end does the reader understand the irony of this comparison.

The conclusions one draws from listening, reading and facial expression are generally treated as corroborative as one recognizes the hypocrisy on the false claim.  This is stated ironically, as Tony thinks he had made sense of it all – that Adrian Junior (this name is as yet unknown then) is Veronica’s son.  At this stage, Tony understands the difficulty of Adrian Senior’s suicide, which itself is defined as ‘the final assertion of individuality against the great generality that oppresses it. 

The reader is also told that most lives comprise compromise and littleness, and that they neither win nor lose, but just let life happen to them.

In the context of Adrian Junior, the importance of ordinary life (as opposed to abnormal) is stressed.

Then there’s a funny take on hand-cut chips, which are actually fat chips cut probably by a machine, don’t have enough salt on them, and have too much ‘potatoey’ inside.

The novel is all about challenges to memories fixated in one’s mind.  The blotted and hazy title page itself is indicative of what is to come.

It will be too bland to state right now that the novel is all about ‘making sense’ of relationships long forgotten.  But if I stated it ab initio, will you have read this far?

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